Nobel (Un)Worthy

This morning I rushed to work, though no one is ever here to scold me for being late, and obviously, I ripped open my newspaper. OK, that last part may be a lie brought on by four years of pretending I'd read the paper before my journalism classes. Seriously, I would bring in three newspapers into class with me every day and maybe read two stories in each. I guess that should have told me something about the declining state of journalism as not even up-and-coming journalists such as myself at the time could get through a full paper even once a week.

I did today, however, look at my google hot trends and found these words glaring at me: Obama Nobel Peace Prize. I'd like to make this clear: I root for our Presidents. I root for the one that everyone thinks is failing and I root for the ones I like and the ones I don't like. I root for them because I don't think talking negatively about a President does anything constructive, and I root for them because most people do better when they have some form of positive support. Deductive reasoning: I rooted for Bush to do what was right, and now I'm rooting for Obama to do what's right. I have not said by any means that either of them have in the past or will in the future do what was/is right. I just am saying that I root for them to do such.

OK. With that all out there, I do want to say that I do not think President Obama's efforts over the past nine months warrant a Nobel Peace Prize. P.O. won the award not for his actual delivery on change, but his rhetoric about change. Those are in no way the same thing. This Washington Post article makes a quality point, effectively undercutting committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland's decision to choose P.O.:

"In response to questions from reporters in Oslo, who noted that Obama so far has made little concrete progress in achieving his lofty agenda, committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said he hoped the prize would add momentum to Obama's efforts. At the same time, Jagland said, 'We have not given the prize for what may happen in the future. We are awarding Obama for what he has done in the past year. And we are hoping this may contribute a little bit for what he is trying to do.'"

But the best is yet to come, when pushed further Jagland sites not those concrete progress points, no, he sites:

"Obama's speech about Islam in Cairo last spring, as well as efforts to address nuclear proliferation and climate change and use established international bodies such as the United Nations to pursue his goals."

And to bring the point home that this award now means less than it did previously:

"'Think about it, it's so post-modern: a leader can now win the peace prize for saying that he hopes to bring about peace at some point in the future,' sniped Wall Street Journal deputy editor Iain Martin in an online post. 'He doesn't actually have to do it, he just has to have aspirations. Brilliant.'"

And doesn't he have a point? We might as well be giving it away to Beauty Queens saying that they wish for world peace.

Again, I root for our Presidents because they are our Presidents. I have respect for the Office of the President of the United States, but I don't think that necessitates my support for awarding something that actually has little to back up the trophy — or I suppose prize in this case. The committee's decision to award P.O. preemptively, in my express opinion, is meaningless and now hereafter the Nobel Peace Prize will be nothing more than another novelty award that doesn't actually say or represent anything. We should call it a Grammy or a Kids Choice Award.

Shocked

A good friend of mine sent me a truly disheartening link to a news story today. It broke my heart a little bit. The story was about a racist hate crime that happened on Baylor University in Waco, Texas. This friend went to school there and is a Barrack fanatic. It's true. So, the story went as follows: after Barrack was elected President of the US racial tensions spewed on Tuesday night between white and black students on the Baptist university's campus. Obama/Biden lawn signs were burned and a noose was left in a tree. No one has been arrested yet.

It's particularly heartbreaking because even earlier this morning I received a link to an Ezra Klein blog post from The American Prospect.. This post had me ecstatic. I even wrote about it on Ode's Exchange. I hope that our country can get over the history we have endured, and I'm just perplexed that we haven't yet.

Below is the photo Klein writes of:

Happy Election Day.

Is it horrible that I am more excited for the election tomorrow just so I don't have to talk about politics with everyone left and right? It's not that I'm not jazzed about gaining a new leader. I'm glad that life is moving on and the political process is moving again. It's funny. The last time there was an election I accidentally voted twice. I think. To be honest, I can't remember. I know I requested an absentee ballot for Illinois, but I distinctly remember voting at Quad freshman year at the UI.

In any case, my roommate at the time was very much into a Kerry presidency. Having just left home, ie the land of Catholic small business owners along Chicago's north shore, I was effectively brought to vote for President Bush. I mostly did it in protest of my roommate. She was really annoying with all the Kerry campaign garbage, and I was more interested in annoying her than giving an opinion. I suppose that's the 18-year-old way? If not, then I guess I was just immature. In any case, it didn't matter anyway. Iowa went to Bush and Illinois never had a chance to go to him.

I find myself in a similar situation today. I had the option of voting absentee in Illinois or at the booth in California. I enjoy getting the sticker more than anything announcing to everyone that I voted, so I chose California, naturally. I'm wishing I voted over the weekend at city hall. Tomorrow I have to wake up at 6 am to walk two blocks in order to get to the polling place. Oh well. My sleep is what I'm willing to sacrifice for democracy. Anyway, I know "every vote counts," but at the same time, both California and Illinois are going to Senator Obama. I could see it mattering if I voted in Iowa or Illinois. Swing states, and all. But, is it just me, or does it seem like the popular vote doesn't matter anyway? We all saw Al Gore lose, and we saw Florida fumble last time—I suppose it does matter. And I will be seen voting tomorrow, wearing my sticker proudly, and I'll be watching the announcement on television with other seemingly like minded individuals. I'll be toasting to a renewing four years, and I'll be glad that life is moving on, and Saturday Night Live will have more to coast on.

But what I'm most happy about is that this is a time where the United States gets a chance to revitalize our stance in the world. We get to not so much get a do over, but we get a chance to remake ourselves. I'm just happy that it seems we'll have a president that cares about how we look to the rest of the world. Honestly, that's one of the most important things to me. There's nothing more detrimental to a country than to boast, and say you can go it alone. Because, really, we can't. We're one country in one world, and everyone else matters.

accents

I always found it so strange that the United States is such a potluck of people. We have all heard the term "melting pot," but I guess I never kind of paid attention to the fact that people come here, to the US to live. They leave their roots, cultures--lives behind. And for what? To live here.

Currently U2's "The Refugee" is playing on my iTunes. It goes something like this:
Oh, Oh
She's the refugee.
I see your face,
I see you staring back at me.
Oh, Oh
She's the refugee
Her mama say one day she's gonna
live in America.

In the morning,
She is waiting,
Waiting for the ship to sail,
Sail away.

Her papa go to war.
He gonna fight,
But he don't know what for.
Her papa go to war
Her mama say one day he's
gonna come back from far away.

Help me.
How can you help me?
In the evening,
She is waiting,
Waiting for her man to come.
And take her by her hand.
And take her to this promise land.

She's a pretty face,
But at the wrong time and at the wrong place.
She's a pretty face.
Her mama say one days she's gonna live in America.
Yeah, America.

She's a refugee.
She's coming back, she's coming for company.
She's a refugee.
Her mama say one day she's gonna live in America.

The concept of an American going to live abroad, I feel, more than in other countries, is seen as kind of unpatriotic. "We've got it so good here--Why live anywhere else?" I think that's part of a problem in America. People only want to do what's comfortable, and if you're born in U2's so-called "promised land" should there be anywhere else worthy of living in? Personally, I'm all about understanding the lives and cultures of other human beings. To me, it's really unfortunate when I hear of someone who has no desire to go beyond these boarders. For those who are akin to traveling I can really see that lifestyle as appealing. Maybe not forever, but enough, enough to satisfy.

If this isn't making any sense, then fine, but I just started thinking about how my country is seen in the world, and I wonder so much if I would feel this way if I lived outside of here. Then there's always the accents. However aware I am of my Chicago sound, I still think its rather humorous when I hear the accent of someone else. There's this moment when you realize that we both sound kind of cool to the other. It just doesn't always seem that when in Iowa, where there's an international student maybe 1 in 100, if not less.

Really, that's it. All I have really thought about so far.